I think I made the right decision!

After running a 90 second marathon PB in Frankfurt last October, I immediately announced that I was giving the marathon away. Going out on a high just seemed like the right thing to do. After 7 years of devotion to the marathon, I was super keen to try something new. For a fleeting moment I admit that ultra's did cross my mind, but sanity quickly kicked in. I've always considered my track PB's to be relatively soft and I've long been keen to have a crack at running under 75 mins for the 1/2 distance.

Having made the decision to step out of my marathon comfort zone, there's been no looking back. I've embraced new elements of training, taken on more frequent racing and I'm already confident that I made the right decision. 3 PB's so far this year have certainly given me much encouragement.

1500 - 4:34 - January
3000 - 9:22 - January
5000 - 16:07 - February

Hopefully this is just the beginning and bigger and better things lie ahead. I do have some lofty stretch goals but I'm keeping these to myself. Upcoming races include:

1500 m - SOPAC - 27 February
8.4 km Fun Run in Auckland - March
10000 m - Australian Masters Championships - April

Down the track, I am keen to have a red hot crack at improving my 1/2 marathon time. Options include Christchurch in late May or Gold Coast in July. I'll evaluate  after my 10000 in April.

Frankfurt Marathon - PB 2:37:26

26/10/2014

Tough race, never really comfortable but ran a big PB. Time to give the marathons away and work on my technique and speed.

Recovery Week

I pulled up with extremely sore quads after the Melbourne Marathon. It wasn't until yesterday that I could walk or run without pain. Monday and Tuesday the pain was quite excruciating and I took the opportunity to have 2 complete rest days. Training for the rest of the week as follows:

Wednesday - 3 km's approx barefoot on grass. Didn't bother with the GPS. Just slowly rolled the legs over. Whilst the quads hurt, I actually enjoyed the freedom of a slow jog on grass without shoes etc.

Thursday - 45 mins in the altitude chamber. 30 mins jogging then 10 mins on the cross trainer with 5 x 20 second surges. Finished off with 5 mins back on the treadmill jogging. Stretched and did core work in the chamber afterwards making up 90 mins in there.

Friday - Rest

Saturday
AM - 6 km's progressive paced tempo. Splits: 3:38 / 3:35 / 3:32 / 3:30 / 3:26 / 3:22. Ran on grass in vibrams. Stiff at first but settled in progressively. 14 km's all up.

PM - 6 km's jogging on grass

Sunday - 23.5 's on grass. Slow jogging at first and progressively picked up the pace to low 4's and finished with a couple km's just under. Took the shoes off afterwards and jogged 500 metres to round off.

I'll avoid the roads again next week but plan to do the Run 4 Fun 10 km road race at Homebush next Sunday.

Lastly I decided today to enter the London Marathon next year. I'm able to get a start as a UK Championship competitor, which requires a sub 2:45 in the past 2 years. Initially I was going to do Rotterdam, but having already done it twice it is too hard to pass up the opportunity to run my 4th major.

Melbourne Marathon

I decided yesterday to switch my entry from the half marathon to the full. Glad I did. Whilst I didn't run a PB or even a sub 2:40, I ran a satisfying 2:41:04. The conditions were generally not too bad. Temperature increased from 12.5 degrees to 13.9 degrees, but there was a bit of wind about and the humidity was high.

For me, the most pleasing thing was running a well controlled race with fairly even splits. The first half I covered in 80:30 and the second 80:34. The conditions were certainly tougher heading back with more running into the wind and a couple of smallish climbs that felt very tough at the time. 

I'm already looking forward to my next marathon and am keen to see if I can maintain the consistency or possibly even improve. My past 4 marathons have been within 84 seconds of each other. I still feel like I'm improving and am certainly learning more about myself along the way. Bringing the altitude chamber into my programme and experimenting with beetroot juice seems to have been a winner. I also feel the Carnova Special Blocks have been very worthwhile. 

Getting crook a few weeks back was far from ideal and it certainly meant I needed to adjust the programme on the fly and shorten the taper period to only 6 days. So whilst I felt strong enough today, I lacked freshness and ran on very heavy legs. Flying down the day before is a mistake I wouldn't repeat. Far too much walking around when I should've been laying on the bed reading or watching movies. 

So that's Melbourne Marathon #2 and #14 overall done and dusted. My enthusiasm is as strong as it was when I first started nearly 7 years ago and most importantly I'm still having fun. The friendships and experiences along the way have truly been wonderful. I wouldn't swap this sport for any other. I just love it!

Still undecided about what to do in Melbourne.

Training update for the past fortnight is as follows:

Monday 23/9 - 12 km's easy

Tuesday 24/9 - 8 km's jogging

Wednesday 25/9 - "Special Block"

AM - 21 km's - 9 easy followed by 11 tempo  & 1 warm-down. Tempo in 41:25 - All up continuous running - 87:03

PM - 26 km's (Altitude Chamber) - 40 mins easy then 11 x 1000 off 500 m float recovery. Ran to HR - 150's (marathon effort) for intervals / 140's for float. 

Thursday - 4 km's - Slow jogging and drills + light strides

Friday - 22.2 km's - 92:50 

Saturday - 3 x 2000 followed by 1 x 1000. Heavy legs took a while to get going. 6:59 / 6:53 / 6:33 / 3:13 splits. Approx 16 km's including warm up and warm down.

Sunday - 33.3 Easy

All up - 141.5 km's for the week (10:47 hours)

This Week

Monday 30/9 (Altitude Chamber) - Progress paced fartlek with decreasing interval times.  1 min jog recovery in between reps / sets. 1 x 5 mins (14.5 km/h) / 2 x 4 mins (15.0 / 15.1 km/h) / 3 x 3 mins (15.2 / 15.3 / 15.4 km/h) / 4 x 2 mins ( 15.5 / 15.6 / 15.7 / 15.8 km/h) / 5 x 1 mins (15.9 / 16.0 / 16.1 / 16.2 / 16.3 km/h) - 6 x 30 sec's (16.4 / 16.5 / 16.6 / 16.7 / 16.8 / 16.9 km/h). Finisheding with 1 x 1 km in 3:30. Felt strong. Probably best result yet in the chamber.

Tuesday - 22.0 easy - 1:40 hr's

Wednesday - 7.6 km's (progressive easy)

Thursday - (Altitude Chamber) - 25 mins tempo.  10 mins warm up, 15 mins at 15.0 km/h followed by 10 mins with pace increasing from 15 km/h to 16.5 km/h. Short warm down.

Friday - 5 km's on grass in vibrams with 5 x 100 m strides

Saturday - 27 km's. fairly relaxed 1:59 hrs

Sunday - 13 slow jogging. Followed with 5 x 100 metres strides barefoot on grass.

All up 101.8 km's for the week in 7:56 hrs.

I have 1 week now to decide whether to do the 1/2 marathon in Melbourne or switch up to the full marathon. Weather forecast looks good (9 degrees increasing to 15 degrees in the morning). Whilst I'm entered for the half, it would be pretty hard to pass up on doing the full in those conditions especially if there is little or no wind. Will probably make up my mind on the Saturday when I get down there.

Slowly getting over the flu.

Despite not feeling too well, I persevered with the training last week. I finished off last week with the following runs:

Wednesday - 18 km's in the altitude chamber. 

Thursday - 5 km's jogging

Friday - 1/4's x 8 (200 jog recovery). Ran at the gym, but had to wait till nearly closing time for a turn on the treadmill in the chamber. Ended up cycling for a bit whilst waiting. Got bored with the cycling so ended up and running on the treadmill outside. Only managed to get the final 4 reps in whilst in the chamber. 

Saturday - 6000 tempo - 20:56 on grass. Nothing flash but held my pace and picked up a little after 3000. Felt flat, probably back to around 80% health.

Sunday - 30 km's in 2:09, included 3 x 2000 (500 jog recovery) after 20 km's. Went a little too hard on that first interval. Dropped off the pace on the 3rd interval. (7:00 / 6:58 / 7:16).

Only 80 km's and 6 runs for the week.

Zzzzzz'z

Any thoughts of running a marathon in Melbourne in 4 weeks time have firmly been put to rest. Illness has gotten the better of me and I've hardly trained for the past week and a bit. I did manage to get the one run in in the altitude chamber last Wednesday but that was the end of me. No doubt I pushed myself when I should've rested. Following that I spent the next 4 & 1/2 days in bed. I did surface today to go to work, but felt pretty ordinary all day. I attempted a jog tonight but after 30 mins I'd had enough.

As to where to from here, I have no idea. First step is to get over this flu or whatever it is and then consider my options.